Numbers: More Laws and Balaam

Numbers seems to me to be pretty much the same thing as Leviticus, except for the fact that God expounds on a few more laws than he did in the previous book and there is no long list of how the tabernacle should look. Thanks for that.

While most of the book is extremely dull, there is at least one story that struck me as both fun and interesting a little more than half way through the book. We are introduced to Balaam, a man who is greatly respected for his apparent power to both bless and curse those whom he wishes. Balaam is recruited by one of the many tribes that live in the "promised land" to come and curse the Israelites so that the tribes can destroy them before the Hebrews decide that it is a good time to make war.

Balaam is an interesting man, however, in that he is one of the first people that we hear of not among the Israelites that worships the same God. So when he learns that it's Israel that he is supposed to be cursing, he immediately turns the curse into a blessing.

However, it is not until his return home that the true humor of the story kicks in. While Balaam is riding his donkey home, an angel appears before him. The donkey is the only thing that can see the animal and so will not budge from his spot. At which point Balaam proceeds to hit the poor animal who instantly whips around and asks him why he's doing that. It is only then that Balaam is able to see the angel and begs forgiveness of the higher being, though never of the donkey surprisingly.

I actually remember laughing out loud when I first read this story, not only because of the near absurdity of it, but because it reminded me of so many of the fables that I had read as a child that I could not believe that this was one of the stories that had been cut from my early bible education, if for no other purpose than the fact that it could have provided a lot more amusement than some of the same old stories over and over again. In the end, the story of Balaam and his donkey may end up being one of the most fundametally engaging stories in the entire bible because there is very little religion that seeks to overpower the simple nature of the narrative. Now if only some more of the Bible were that way, I might be in good shape.