The Israelites have found some serious successes last week. So much so they have two nations quaking in their boots:
3. And Moab was very afraid of the people, because they were many; and Moab was distressed because of the people of Israel. 4. And Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all who are around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time. [Numbers 22]
So a plot is hatched to get Balaam to curse them, but at first Balaam is reluctant but eventually agrees. His attempt leads to a very unexpected outcome: The Israelites are blessed instead of cursed.
Why is the story of Balaam and Balak here? And why, in the chapter that follows it do we have a story of another plague on the people? I believe those questions are related. In the story of getting to the Promised Land, the answer has to be the successes of the people in getting there. But like Balaam’s donkey, we first have to take a bit of a detour.
My iPhone isn’t working. If anything applies to the issues of dumb mistakes it’s my iPhone. I bought it a week too early to be eligible for the upgrade to the 3G. When I went to download the software this morning, well, it crashed, hanging on the wonderful words “verifying iPhone software.” I should have known better than to update on the first day. Apple on the other hand should have seen this coming as well.
In both my case and in Apple’s case we thought we knew what we were doing – and we were both wrong – Hubris got the better of us. Balaam and The Israelites messed up in the same way, and for much of the same reason. They had had successes, but they were not yet in their promised land, and that can lead to some serious mistakes. Balaam could not curse to save his life. Now some might mention a disclaimer to that:
20. And God came to Balaam at night, and said to him, If the men come to call you, rise up, and go with them; but only that word which I shall say to you, that shall you do. 21. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. [Numbers 22]
What’s missing there is and important phrase “and the men called him.” Balaam did not follow directions here. He went without being called. His own arrogance is what got him into trouble. As a result God gets angry and sends angel against Balaam. For the first time in this story we see the resistance that we’ve been trying to get rid of the entire journey come to a good use. That resistance takes the form of a talking donkey, who moves away or stops every time she sees this angel.
Resistance in is most basic form is to keep us from harm. We’ve been talking about more complex forms of resistance, resistance to non-existent hazards, and even resistance to good stuff. But here it’s clear resistance is a good thing because the angel of his own admission was out to kill Balaam. Resistance keeps us from harm. Yet, Balaam pushed forward against the resistance, beating it. The donkey’s response is essentially “I’ve never steered you wrong, why are you beating me?” Balaam’s Arrogance leads towards his self destruction, just like my attempting to upgrade my iPhone on a day I should have known would have been a disaster left it a mere brick. There are times we should listen to our resistance.
Maybe the episode of the angel is to remind Balaam who he serves, and who word he must give. He didn’t follow directions once; he is not to do it again. So when he gets to the Israelites, no matter what happens, he invariably blesses instead of curses the Israelites:
1. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. 2. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him. 3. And he took up his discourse, and said, The speech of Balaam, the son of Beor; the speech of a man whose eyes are open; 4. The speech of him who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes open; 5. How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel! [Numbers 24]
Balaam tried using enchantments the first two times, and found they didn’t work, the enchantments were resistance, as noted in 23:23
23. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel;
So he stops resisting and gives a great blessing. He also noticed something on the mountain he was on.
28. And Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks toward Jeshimon.[23:28]
He had been ignoring and beating legitimate resistance due to his own arrogance. Sitting on top of Peor, he realized something important. We read immediately after Balaam’s story:
1. And Israel stayed in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab. 2. And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods. 3. And Israel attached himself to Baal-Peor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.[25:1-3]
A plague ensues which Eleazar’s son Pinchas stops by killing an Israelite and a Moabite copulating in front of the tabernacle. What is significant in next week’s portion is how this mess started:
16. Behold, these [women] caused the people of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. [31:16]
Balaam reasoned correctly that if he was arrogant enough to fall into a trap, so would a people who had just tasted their first taste of victory. They could easily be seduced because they were both naive to the danger and arrogant enough to ignore it. For the last few years, I’ve studied the theories of a modern Balaam and some of his disciples. His name is Eric Markovic, he is stage magician, but most in the seduction community call him Mystery. For many he is the ultimate Pick-up artist, able to sleep with any beautiful woman he wants.
At the core of his technique is something very simple, so simple I find it disturbing. Mystery plays on one’s successes and failures. He is very good with beautiful women because they have had an inherent success of being told repeatedly they are beautiful women. Yet, while talking to these women; he disqualifies them for being slightly less than beautiful. For most of these women their only victory in the world is their beauty, for anyone to think them slightly less than beautiful, means they feel compelled to prove otherwise. So over a conversation they more and more fall into his trap, all their resistance to sleeping with him shattered in their wanting to prove the one thing they know is true about themselves.
The rabbis in the Midrash Numbers Rabbah give a similar story of the seduction into Baal-Peor worship. Step by step the Moabite women entice the men first to talk to them then to eat with them, and then they make the condition the Israelites can only sleep with them if they make a sacrifice to Baal Peor. The Israelites prior to the victories against Og and Sihon did not know real victory. They had that boost to their ego, along with the word of Balaam only able to give them blessings. They must have felt on top of the world. To then hear from the people around them some praise of them would have brought their first resistance down to the Moabite women. It could have been something like “Hey I never met a soldier before come over here big boy” Yet that was followed up by something simple, maybe “but you can’t be a real man, since you don’t eat my food like beets and beer” the poor guy in trying to fix his self esteem of being a true man, goes and eats the beets and beer. This goes on until he is sacrificing in front of a pagan god. The resistance found in the stubborn donkey was wiped out by our own arrogance about ourselves. In the end the Israelites are not only worshipping this pagan god, but are out right addicted to it.
Such seduction happens to us all the time; it is not just one pickup artist. It is the core element of most marketing campaigns. Much of the irrational side of my trying to get that iPhone to work is a completely irrational belief that having the new software gives me some kind of higher status. It plays on my own lack of self-esteem, a lack we all have in ourselves. The dating coach community is far bigger than Mystery’s antics, though his story told by one of his disciples is arguably the most significant reason the dating coach industry has blossomed in the past few years. While most of the criticism is directed as the lack of ethics found in Mystery’s type of pick-up, even by the community itself, overwhelmingly the response back to such criticism has been the same: People are already being seduced, and that seduction is even less productive. Our loneliness is being exploited for profit for all kinds of products, from beer, to makeup, to clothing, to cars. Each promises us that we will get the ideal mate by buying something instead of connecting with another. Our legitimate internal resistance, our internal talking donkeys are removed because of our insecurities and our arrogance to believe we are something we are not. The result is to act irrationally, and the irrational act leads us into self destruction.
So what are we to do? How do we fight this?
Interestingly, a lightning pointed attack on this can change everything, and the spell can be lost. Next week we’ll address the end of this portion with the hero next week’s portion is named for.
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