Commentary on Numbers 22 and the story of the Prophet Balaam. This is part of a larger series on the Pentateuch to be found at johnstevenson.net/ - this series was developed for a course at South Florida Bible College.
It seems God became angry in verse 21 because Balaam was instructed he could only go if the envoys asked him again per verse 20, but there is no indication he was asked again the next morning. Instead it seems he just woke up and prepared to leave w/o explicitly being asked again to go, ignoring the sign God instructed him to watch for which would grant God's blessing to leave. On a different topic, I always enjoy reading when scripture in the O.T. refers to THE Angel of the Lord as opposed to AN angel of the Lord. The former would be the angelic form of Jesus vs. the latter would just be any of the Heavenly Host. Same as in Genesis 32 when Jacob wrestled THE Angel of the Lord, he was wrestling w/the angelic form of Jesus. Here we have a female donkey who could see Jesus when Balaam could not, which meant the donkey had more spiritual discernment than the man. :-)
Sir...your observation is the biggest part of the story. If Baalam dis not wait for the sign...the "IF they ask" it sure makes me think about Judas, what if the LORD had said don't go. Your point is that GOD has a way and a time. get the time wrong and everything you do is wrong. Go before he said, go even if you know already you WILL go, and do not wait to hear go, you are on your own though you missed GOD by as little as a minute or an hour. Jesus speaks of a candle being lit. How will that candle light anything unless there is a power invisible, to the eye that in the shape of a man carries that candle in HIS HAND......as he does HIS WILL. Close your eyes and see a man holding a birthday candle. You are the candle, and who is it that took you from the box and lit you, and is holding you in his hand? IN Baalam's case the candle is making a deal with the king to use the man that is holding the candle to do the will of the candle. All invisible but clearly seen if you notice he did not wait. Thank you sir you really added something I am very pleased to understand.
We are not told the "whys" of most of what God does; it is beyond our pay grade. But it does let us know that God takes disobedience seriously and we can learn from that. As to Balaam's eternal destiny, we are not specifically told, but the New Testament makes some remarks about Balaam that are not very encouraging (2nd Peter 2:15; Jude 1:11; Revelation 2:14).
