I am going through a major transition in business right now. My partner and I had two businesses together. We have agreed to separate, with him taking one business and me taking the other on negotiated terms. I have sensed that God has orchestrated this. I believe He has led me to this place, but it has been a walk of faith. The business I am leaving behind is one that I believe God showed me He cannot bless. I won’t delve into the reasons why. After He had shown me this, I prayed for Him to open doors in a different direction. Immediately things went terribly wrong in the business I am leaving behind. The result is me leaving it and taking over the other business on negotiated terms.

I did very little to influence the outcome of these circumstances and I have seen God’s hand at work throughout. But that did not prevent doubts and fears from rising as I continued to walk the path laid out before me. I have agonized over the risks involved. I’ve feared that God’s blessing would not rest on the business I am taking over either. Fear of failure loomed like a dark cloud from time to time. 

                  A Lesson From Balaam & Balak

I cried out to God to help me deal with the giants that stood before me, taunting me. Then one morning earlier this week, I opened my Bible and read the the story of Balak and Balaam. 

Balak was king of Moab at the time the Israelites were marching through the wilderness toward their promised land. He saw how the Israelites had defeated the Amorites and he was in dread of them. So he sent for Balaam who supposedly would be able to curse the Israelites through dark powers of some kind. But Israel was blessed with the blessing of Abraham and Balaam was unable to curse them. In fact, he ended up speaking four oracles of blessing over them.

When I read this, something stirred within me. I remembered how our pastor had often reiterated the passage in Galatians 3:29. Part of it basically says, if we are Christ’s we are Abraham’s offspring. And it flashed through my mind that I therefore have the same Abrahamic blessing on my life that the Israelites had when Balak attempted to have them cursed.

                  Balak Has No Authority Over Us

I realized that the only way Balak could stand afar and curse me as he was attempting to do, was if I believed he had the authority to do it. Crying out to God once more, I thanked Him for the blessing of Abraham I have inherited through my faith in Jesus. I renounced the curses of Balak, knowing they had no power over me. In fact, when God blessed Abraham, He said He would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. So I claimed a position where curses would be turned onto the head of him who spoke them against me.

It was a powerful revelation for me and it turned the tide in the battle I was experiencing. But God was not done with this Biblical lesson yet.

                                      Snares

If you read on past the the story of Balak and Balaam, in the very next chapter, you will find that though the Israelites could not be cursed without cause, they could be ensnared to their own demise. They got caught up in baal worship through seduction by the Moabite women. There are not many details in Numbers concerning how this all came about, but in Revelation 2:14 it says: But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. –ESV 

So according to this, it seems that having failed in cursing the Israelites, Balaam showed Balak a way in which he could get inside the hedge of protection built around the Israelites. This could only be done by the Israelites willingly turning their backs on their God and engaging in practices His covering would not reach to. It is the same for us today. 

So we can find tremendous encouragement in this Biblical account with a warning added as well, that we would do well to heed.