Why Does Bilaam Think He Can Pull it Off?
The story of the prophet Bilaam is a very odd one. Paid by the king Balak to curse the Jewish people, Bilaam ends up blessing the people instead.
But what on earth was he thinking? Why would he have thought that he would have been allowed to curse G-d’s own chosen people? Any rational person in that situation would merely have declined the assignment, since angering G-d does not seem like a very good career move.
Could it be that Bilaam does not know that “his” deity is the same god of the Jewish people?!
Where might the text support that idea? Is this an answer? Bilaam first treats G-d as his own personal deity. He refers to G-d as “my god.”(Num. 24:13) And he clearly seems to think that his deity would not mind cursing the upstart Jews – which is why he goes so far as to compare the Jewish people to the plague of locusts:
The [locusts] hid all the land from view (Exodus 10:15)
What a strange phrase! Where else is it found?
“Here is a people that came out of Egypt and hid all the land from view” (Bilaam to G-d, Numbers 22:11)
“Hiding the land” is only found in the Torah in these two verses. Does this not make this link very strong?
For Bilaam, could it have deeper levels of meaning? The land is from where Bilaam gains his inspiration. He seeks “omens” – which are the same word as “snake” in the text – nachash. The snake crawls on the ground, so blocking the land is blocking natural omens from view. Yet Bilaam seeks omens, nachash when he prophecies the first two times.
Does this mean that Bilaam’s realization that the G-d of the Jewish people is also the god that talks to Bilaam comes with the third prophecy, when G-d puts the words in Bilaam’s mouth?
Where is the proof? “Their G-d [same word as Bilaam uses to refer to his god] is with them.” (Num. 23:21)
Does this new understanding change how Bilaam behaves after that point?
Now Balaam, seeing that it pleased G-d to bless Israel, did not, as on previous occasions, go in search of omens [snakes], but turned his face toward the wilderness. (Num. 24:1)
The word for “wilderness”, midbar, is taken from the root letters meaning “from the word.”
Why?
Could it be because the wilderness is not spectacular or beautiful; it is a place so devoid of features that we are not naturally attracted to it? Is it a bit like praying from under a shawl, or Jacob and Bilaam talking to G-d at night: blocking out the visual makes it easier for us to focus on our listening, and find a way to connect with ourselves and with G-d? Separations from the natural world make it easier to commune and connect (which might also explain why G-d in the Torah almost never speaks to more than one or two people at a time – each person is unique, and each relationship is unique, so the religious experience even within a community is grounded in the connection each individual person has with G-d).
If all of this is right, then maybe we can grasp the arc of Bilaam’s evolution? Does his understanding grow from thinking G-d was merely the natural deity, to learning that G-d is found through words, in a place above nature?
Along the way, does Bilaam not discover that his own private deity is not his very own – that Bilaam’s deity is also the G-d of the Jews?
Lastly, does Bilaam learns that to commune with G-d, he needs to look past nature, not into it?
If all of this is right, does the overall lesson that the story of Bilaam teaches us include that Jews are not about allowing people to commune with the natural world? Does this explain why Bilaam says the Jews “block” the view of the earth?
Is it not the task of the Jews to help the world see that true prophecy and connection with G-d is found through words and relationships, not divining with nature?
Naked Eyes?
When Bilaam prophecies, he twice uses the phrase, Word of him who hears God’s speech / Who beholds visions from the Almighty / Prostrate, but with naked (gala) eyes.
Why does he say this?
Could it be that earlier in the story, G-d opened Bilaam’s eyes?!
The LORD uncovered (gala) Bilaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, his drawn sword in his hand.
If so, then did the episode with the angel and the donkey actually made Bilaam a better prophet? Is there a better explanation for why G-d uncovers Bilaam’s eyes? And is the result that Bilaam’s prophecies of the Jews are because, by having naked eyes, Bilaam he could see at a level that had previously been hidden from him?