Numbers 22:3-4

Now there are a few things here that are kind of funny. I'd say in this whole situation that verse 2 is so ironic! (Actually this whole passage is.)

The name "Balak" means "Devastator." He has a very evil name. But, his father's name, "Zippor" means "Sparrow." Sparrows are among the flightiest of birds. You can't get close to a sparrow. They fly at the slightest movement.

Here is this mighty Balak, the Devastator whose father was Sparrow, and the next verse says that they were exceedingly afraid! The Devastator was afraid! How ironic! They were so afraid that they were sick with dread. Do you know what that actually means? Hebrew is a very colorful language. It means that they were so terrified that they were throwing up. It is literally "sick." Their fear was visceral. It made their gut wrench. They were terrified for their lives.

What makes this so ironic is that they had nothing to fear. God had told Israel not to mess with the Moabites.

So, Israel was to do nothing. They would pass by. If Moab would just leave well enough alone, and not let their fear to get the best of them, then nothing like the following story would have happened.

You find out that a lot of people died because of Moab's fear, and the things that they did. But, they reacted to their fear, and really made a mess of things.

Another ironic thing here is what is said in verse 4. There is also a possible economic problem here. Moab said that Israel would come through and "lick up" all of our goods—they are going to eat all our wealth up. At the time their wealth was mostly on the hoof, or in their grain storehouses. They thought Israel would come in and take all their livestock and grain, and leave Moab destitute.

Well, again they had nothing to fear because, remember Israel had not gone into the land yet, and God was still giving them manna 6 days a week, and double on Friday.

So Israel wasn't going to come in and devastate their land. They were not going to come in and take all their wealth. So the second element they feared was also bogus. They had made it up in their own heads. It was a figment of their imagination.

They were functioning by human nature, and it was only natural for them to think that if 2 or 3 million people came in, they would eat up everything and take over the territory. But, that's the irony of all this. Nothing like that was going to happen, especially if they didn't move to make Israel their enemy.

It is kind of interesting that all of this could have been avoided with a little bit of communication between Balak (the Devastator) and Moses. If he had come to Moses, instead of Balaam, everything would have worked out differently.