The lectionary does not have many passages from the Book of Numbers because most of the book is full of numbers. Not very interesting. The story of Balaam was important to the early Church because he spoke of “a star from Jacob” which was associated with the story of the magi. Balaam was not a Jew but was nonetheless called a prophet. Maybe the best analogy for Balaam in contemporary terms was the he was an influencer. A rival king hired him to spread some dirt about the Hebrew children as they were on their way to the promised land. However, Balaam tells us about himself: The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of a man whose eye is true, The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows. Unlike today’s influencers Balaam can only speak the truth. Instead of cursing the Israelites he had to bless them because that was what God expected. Balaam reminds us of the importance of speaking the truth. In these days of social media people try to sway our thinking sometimes even ignoring the truth in the process. Since Jesus is the truth believers need not fear speaking the truth wherever it leads us.
