19 April 2026

Lessons from an Ass: Unwelcome Prophecy

Numbers 22:41 – 23:12

Last week I started off by telling you about the amazing archeological finds in the ancient city of Mari, in Iraq, where 4000-year-old inscriptions refer to prophets, much like the biblical prophets, but 2000 years earlier. That’s interesting, of course, but I should also note that those prophets were still peripheral when it came to seeing the future. The main players in that area were the haruspices. These were the highly trained, specialized personnel at the temples who told the future by examining the livers of sacrificial animals. You see, the lobes of the liver are not always in the same place, and each lobe-position conveyed a different message, it seems. There were whole classes on how to read liver lobes. In one room in the archives at Mari, archeologists found shelves stacked high with clay models of livers, all slightly different lobe-wise, apparently used in haruspex school. Nobody wants an untrained haruspex, right? They had to go through training, pass the state boards, and I don’t know what all. But when they were done, they could read the future. All that woo-woo prophecy stuff was fine for the illiterate masses, but a trained professional reading a liver … that was science. 

What do you suppose it was that made haruspection so much more popular among the ancient people of Mari than prophecy? What was the appeal of reading livers as opposed to asking the gods? Well, for starters, there’s no waiting. You can always find a liver to read, but gods are notorious for communicating in their own sweet time, if they do at all. And that’s the other thing. When you read a liver, you’re in control. You have a question, you read the giblets, you have your answer. It’s that simple. Your answer may not be accurate, but at least you got one, and on your schedule. This is why every culture has some form of fortune-telling, some method that doesn’t require waiting on a god: reading the flight of the swallows, palmistry, tea leaves, joss sticks, various types of dice or other stones to cast, Tarot cards. Everyone wants some method to foretell the future that is under their control. In fact, we should take it even farther. We don’t just want to see the future, we also want to manipulate the present. We want things that we can do to ensure good fortune for ourselves or, if we’re in a bad mood, ill fortune for our enemies. And every culture has this stuff, too: good luck charms, amulets, potions for good or evil, spells for good or evil, curses, voodoo dolls, and the like. And people who gain a reputation for skill with such talismans become both much in demand and much feared. These include witches, mediums, wise men and cunning women, witch doctors, and so on.

And that takes us back to the story of Balaam in the Book of Numbers. Remember from last week why the King of Moab wanted to hire Balaam the prophet? It wasn’t to see the future; it was cast a curse on the immigrant horde that was massing at his border: the Israelites. Balaam was apparently famous not just as a prophet but as an enchanter. Now, as you’ll remember from last week, God had told Balaam that those Israelites were off limits. They were his chosen people and he was not to curse them, but in the end God had allowed Balaam to go see King Balak, so long as Balaam only said what God told him to say. We resume the story with Numbers chapter 22, verse 41, through chapter 23, verse 12.

22:41On the next day Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal; and from there he could see part of the people of Israel.

23 1Then Balaam said to Balak, ‘Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.’ 2Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3Then Balaam said to Balak, ‘Stay here beside your burnt-offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.’ And he went to a bare height.

4Then God met Balaam; and Balaam said to him, ‘I have arranged the seven altars, and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.’ 5The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, ‘Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.’ 6So he returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt-offerings with all the officials of Moab. 7Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying:

‘Balak has brought me from Aram,
   the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
“Come, curse Jacob for me;
   Come, denounce Israel!”
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
   How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?
9 For from the top of the crags I see him,
   from the hills I behold him;
Here is a people living alone,
   and not reckoning itself among the nations!
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
   or number the dust-cloud of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
   and let my end be like his!’

11Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.’ 12He answered, ‘Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?’

Bad day for King Balak! And it gets worse. After Balaam unaccountably blesses Israel instead of cursing them, as he was being paid to do, Balak has an idea. “Let’s try a different mountain, with a different angle on the Israelites!” So they circle around Israel’s camp, climb another mountain, sacrifice another seven bulls and seven rams and … Balaam blesses Israel again! King Balak is furious. There only one thing left to do … try a third mountain! Yes! That’s the ticket! So they go to yet a third mountain, go through the whole bloody procedure all over again and this time … anyone want to guess? Yes! Balaam blesses the Israelites! Wow! Who saw that coming?

There is no doubt in my mind that the writer who put this story in its biblical form intended it to be read as a farce. It is a biting satire of all those obtusely optimistic people who think that by manipulating a few sticks or casting a few stones or examining a few livers or reading a pack of cards they can somehow penetrate the mysteries of God’s will or, even more laughable, can bend God to their own will, forcing God to do their bidding. They’re jokes. The message of this story is that God is in control, and no petty magician or even famous prophet or anyone else has power over God. 

Now today, we in industrialized society are likely to agree with that assessment of fortune-tellers and soothsayers. We also tend to see them as ridiculous frauds. Not all of us, mind you. Recent religious surveys seem to indicate that many of those who have abandoned organized religion over the past few decades have ended up experimenting with spiritualism and Wicca and so on. Manipulative tools for seeing the future and influencing the present still have their old appeal to many. Nevertheless, most of us find them laughable … because we have a new way to manipulate reality, and new way to control our destiny. We have science, and it is true that science has given us the ability to control many former curses: diseases, and so forth. Now science still has its limits and those who imagine that through our technology we will solve all the problems of life are just as foolish as any witchdoctor, but that’s a sermon for another day.  

Instead, I want to come back to the world of faith. The appeal of the haruspices and the mediums and the Tarot card readers is that they offer the illusion of being in control. What the story of Balaam teaches us is that we have no control over God. No matter how many bulls and rams we offer, no matter how many mountains we try, God will do what God chooses. Yes, God sometimes speaks through the prophets – even unlikely prophets like the Moabite Balaam, or his donkey – but that prophecy will be what God wants to say, whether we like it or not. And yet, even today, we within the Christian church are just as susceptible to the lure of control as King Balak. We don’t want to wait for God, and we don’t want to accept an unwelcome response from God. A few examples: the bread-and-butter of prosperity gospel preachers is to tell people that if they pray this prayer and follow this particular set of actions (one of which will be making a donation to their church) then God is obligated to make you wealthy. Or again, people often ask me, “Does prayer work?” Think about what that question implies: that the purpose of prayer is to be able to influence God to do what we want God to do. It’s no different than asking “Does this good luck charm or this love potion work?” And, of course, there are those who claim that prayer has exactly that purpose, who say that if we just pray with enough faith, then God has to give us what we demand. No, he doesn’t. God is not a hostage to the delusional. I don’t care how firmly you believe something will happen, your conviction does not change God’s freedom to act as God chooses. Prayer should be understood as a conversation between two people who love each other, and seen in that way the question “Does it work?” is nonsense. Getting your way is not the purpose of a conversation between friends.

I would add to this list all those churches and denominations that set out to “save the church” with new programs and campaigns. Every couple of years we come out with another one, planned by consultants, test marketed by denominational leaders, and rolled out in starter packs complete with promotional material. Then we pray, inviting God to bless the plans we’ve already made. Every program disappears in a year or two, having made little impact, but it doesn’t matter. We have a new one for next year, and this one is different! We’ve changed things! We’re calling the same things by different words! We’ve moved it to a different mountain! This time, if you do these things, God will have to “grow your church”! We are very like King Balak sometimes, deciding what we want to accomplish, then trying to manipulate God into doing our bidding.

The lesson of the story of Balak is that while we have choices, and our choices can affect our futures, our control over this world is limited, and our control over God is non-existent. We are called not to take over God’s work on earth but to join God in the work he is already doing. That means our first step is to listen, and although it is hard, to wait. In our waiting, maybe God can get a word in edgewise and change us. We may not be able to control God, but if God controls us, that’s when miracles happen.