When we last left our friends, the migrating Israelites, all the way back on November 15th, they had just arrived to the east bank of the Jordan River, opposite Jericho, and set up camp there on what was known as the plains of Moab, as noted in Numbers 22:1.
The next mention of the word 'desert' is two chapters later, in 24:1-3a
Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned his face toward the desert. When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him and he uttered his oracle
So, in actuality, we have landed in the middle of a narrative without much context for what is going on. So I'm going to take another little sideline here to discuss this guy named Balaam.
Basically, in the camp of the Israelites, Moses is preparing for the change in leadership. Joshua is designated as the next leader, and Moses began giving them an extended review of their history and the Law. But in the meantime, the Midianites and the Mobaites were terrified and Balak, king of Moab, having observed the defeat of both the Amorites and Bashan, came up with a scheme to try and protect them all against the Israelites and hired a prophet to come and curse Israel. The prophet was Balaam, and you can read the story of how God allowed him to come and strictly warned him, so that Balaam failed utterly to curse the Israelites as he was paid to do and blessed them instead in Numbers 22 and 23. 24:1 picks up with the third attempt to curse the Israelites...and once more, as is recorded in chapter 24, Balaam blesses them instead. He even gives what is generally considered a Messianic prophesy in 24:17-19. Balak is disgusted with him, and, according to 24:25, Balaam returned home.
That seemed to be the end of that, but it actually wasn't. Apparently Balaam had left some advice for the folks who hired him. Jumping ahead a bit, Moses has a problem with soldiers who allowed Midianite women to live after a battle...
They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor... (31:16a)
And what was that advice? Well, back to 25:1-3
While Israel was staying up in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite women, who invited them to sacrifice to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.
So, before Balaam left, he told the Moabites that, if they couldn't defeat the Israelites by battle or by supernatural curses, they could entice them away from the God who protected them by getting the Israeli men involved with the Moabite and Midianite (v. 6) women so that the Israelites took up the worship of the local gods.
And it almost worked. However, instead of God abandoning his people, he sent judgment on them and 24,000 people died in a plague....including the last of the generation that had rejected God's plan at Kadesh Barnea 40 years earlier. The only ones left of that generation now were Moses, Joshua and Caleb:
After the plague, the Lord said to Moses...'Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families -- all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel.' ... Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. For the LORD had told those Israelites they would surely die in the desert, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.' (Num. 26: 1-2, 64-65)
Regarding Balaam...apparently he didn't stay home after he went back there. There was a battle against Midian after the census, and Num. 31:8 records the 5 kings of Midian who were killed in the battle, and there's one small note there as well:
They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
So the prophet had apparently been hired again...and was with the enemies of Israel when the judgment fell. Incidentally, Balaam is also mentioned in the New Testament; Peter, in discussing false teachers, wrote in 2 Pet. 2:15
They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
Jude also sites Balaam as an example of false teachers in verse 11 of his short letter:
Woe to them! they have taken the way of Cain, they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.
And finally, the worldly church is warned in Rev. 2:14
'Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.'
The Israelites were at the very end of their sojourn in the desert, on the cusp of the promise...and Balaam conspired to overthrow them through the enticement of the culture around them. Not only did they suffer consequences, but now Balaam's name has been memorialized as an example of fatal error. Using the gifts and office of a prophet for personal gain and entrapping God's people into going along with those who neither fear nor honor Him will bring judgment and grief.
Beware the error of Balaam.
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