Talk:Balaam

The rest of the story
It appears that you stopped before you reached the conclusion of the "ministry" of Balaam. There was no war with Moab. At least not openly.

The next chapter, after Balaam and Balak parted, the Israelites settled in the area for a time. The men began to live with the women of Moab, including worshipping their god Baal of Peor. Before the paganism could take over all of Israel, God called on Moses to instruct the priesthood to arrest all the leaders of the families that had joined in the pagan rituals of Baal worship. The punishment was to hang these men in the desert sun. God was beginning a cleansing of the people of Israel from the secular leadership down.

As people began to die of a divinely directed plague, one Israelite brought his new Midianite bride to the tent of meeting. The priest, Aaron's grandson Phinehas took quick action, killing the man and his mistress on the spot. The plague stopped. 24,000 men had died as a result of choosing to worship Baal instead of Yahweh. The advice of Balaam had worked better than an incantation to curse the people. He had done an end run around God's command. He had died unrepentant, becoming a lesson to all who take payment to promote ungodliness. (see Numbers 25

Later, just before Moses died, he was told to avenge the wrongs that the Midianites had done the people of Israel. No direct instructions are recorded, but standard procedure was to massacre the men, take the women and children and the riches and burn the cities. Among those killed was Balaam. When Moses saw the women taken captive, he was concerned about corruption to come from marrying the widows of the slain Midianites. There was a very real danger that they had taken the advice of Balaam, who was living with them when he was killed. To prevent a repeat of the plague from earlier, he commanded that only the virgin females be spared (both adult and child) as slaves and/or wives. The other women and their male children were to be killed. (See Numbers 31)

The error of Balaam (see the Revelation) was profiting from sin. He encouraged others to sin in return for a hefty fee. He could not curse the people of God, but he could lead them astray. The pleasures of sin seemed worth the risk. As the church of the "last days" (meaning since the first century AD) faces this problem. That warning is in Rev. 2:14. "Eating meat sacrificed to idols" is buying meat "blessed" by pagans before a portion is sacrificed. Fornication -- adultery with temple prostitutes -- was common in all the pagan religions of the ancient times except, of course worship of Yahweh.

I could have finished the article for you, but I will let you work on it instead. --SouthWriter (talk) 04:04, February 7, 2016 (UTC)