XX

PERMISSION WITHOUT SANCTION

And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. ... And God came unto Balaam at night and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them. And God's anger was kindled because he went.-NUMBERS xxii. 12, 20-22.

I Do not propose at this time to enter into a consideration of the complex character of Balaam as related in this story, except in so far as it may illustrate the subject suggested by our text. These words we have chosen touch some of the deepest problems of life and religion, the problems that circle round the subject of the place and freedom of the human will. I wish to treat it as little philosophically as possible, and as practically and ethically as I can. It is not necessary to enlarge much on the setting of our text. The situation of Balaam at this point of the narrative is a common one, allowing for the differences of time and custom and the accidentals of life. It is simply the situation of a man keenly desirous of doing something which he knows to be

wrong, and who seeks to reconcile a real conscientiousness with his desire.

Balak offers him things which his heart covets, if he will go to him and curse for him the Israelites. Balaam is persuaded in his own mind that he cannot do this as things stand, that it will be contrary to the will of God who has blessed Israel; and yet he would fain earn the reward in some way without being ab solutely false. He would not accept once for all the plain intimation of God's will and the simple acceptance of duty; but at the same time he is determined not to disobey the dictates of conscience. This at least is his attitude to begin with. When Balak's messengers came with the bribes and promises, he held firm to what he believed to be God's will, and came out of the shock of the first temptation unharmed. "God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them. And Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, Get ye into your own land: for the Lord refuseth to give me leave to go with you." He had no doubt in his mind as to what God's will was in the matter, and he stated that unflinchingly in spite of the fact that he fain would have gone; and if nothing further had occurred, it would all have looked like a moral victory for Balaam; and indeed, so it was to some extent.

But it is not the way of temptation to come once and be content with a single repulse. On Balaam's refusal a still more imposing embassy was sent with more lavish promises of reward. If the former occasion had represented a complete moral victory, this would not have been much of a temptation. The prophet could only have repeated his refusal. He had learned what his duty was. But, enticed by the promised bribes, he cast about for some way of getting what his heart was set on. He thought he might possibly obtain leave to do what God had before forbidden. Instead of sending the envoys away, he bade them wait in the hope that he might be able to get a more favourable answer. He seemed to succeed; for he did receive permission to go.

"God said unto

him, If the men come to call thee, rise

up and go with

He knew he

them." Nothing was really altered. was not allowed to curse instead of bless. But he still hoped that some further concession might be granted which would enable him to earn the reward. He was only entering into temptation, getting nearer to it, playing with it, going with open eyes into a situation which would inevitably make it more difficult for him to be true. The permission he received to go did not change the facts of the case, did not alter God's will, could not alter it; it only brought

Balaam himself into deeper waters, and gave him a harder battle to fight with temptation; it was a long step towards the ultimate degradation and the final plunge.

This is no character-sketch of Balaam; or there would here lie on the very surface for us many lessons of warning and counsel, warnings about the beginning of evil and the genesis of sin in the mind, and dallying with temptation. I prefer just now to touch a deeper thought suggested by the words of our text, with their startling contrast, "God said unto Balaam, Go. And God's anger was kindled because he went." Subtle and complex as Balaam's character may have been, it contains no such strange and dark mystery as the mystery of God's providence shadowed forth in these astounding words. At first it seems a mistake, an impossible reading of events. What tragedy, and what mystery underlie these sentences, "God said unto Baalam, Thou shalt not go with them." And then because Balaam wanted it, longed for it, set his heart on it, "God said unto him, Go." And all the time he was going to his own hurt, compassing his life about with many evils. "God's anger was kindled against him because he went." The paradox of Balaam's character, great as it is, is nothing to the appalling para

dox that God should permit what is against His will —that a man should receive a permission which was not a sanction.

Yet is not this the common situation of us all? Is this not the invariable environment of all moral life, that we are allowed to enter into temptation, allowed to go against the very will of God? That this should be so, that man should possess such terrible power, seems the great mystery of our life; and yet it cannot be otherwise if we are to remain men. It is no isolated instance, this case of Balaam's. Right through the Bible we find the same explanation of this weird power of man to go against God and to get his way against God to his own undoing; as when Israel desired a king, in order to be like other nations, rather than be a theocracy in which they had no king but God, it is stated that God gave them a king in His anger; or the Psalmist's explanation of the fatal time in the desert, when the Israelites lusted after the flesh-pots of Egypt and despised the manna; and when the flesh-meat came it brought with it a terrible plague from which many died. The Psalmist points the same moral, "They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."